Complacency runs rampant by youth in America, me included. I believe that instead of standing against inequality my generation is complacent with it and furthermore I believe many of us are desensitized to the role inequality has globally, nationally, locally, and individually. My generation has so many various media outlets, that the inequality happening throughout the world is constantly being forced down our throats. As result the destruction has become the everyday; as if it is something that cannot be changed or stopped. So when a man sets himself on fire in Libya and groups of people are arrested for treason in Zimbabwe for meeting up to watch videos of the revolution occurring in Egypt it does something worse than fall on deaf ears; it falls on ears that do not believe they can change the situation. These events fall on the ears of complacent people who believe that the way the world works is the only world there is and anything outside of that is irrational.
So what can we do but watch as the Middle East and the continent of Africa are being swept over (or is a cleansing effect) by a sea of revolutionaries. People demanding for a change far beyond that of what Obama preached during his campaign. I read the newspaper and tack online news sources of the events shaping our world and I wonder if the stand against oppression can reach its hands across the ocean and hit the shores of the US.
Ramble over…
I'm hopeful for our future because the way things are they're unsustainable, so one way or another things will change.
ReplyDeleteLove your post. I think many, like me, are hypersensitive to the many destructive problems globally, nationally, and locally that we are exposed to through the various media outlets. Like me, many shut themselves off from it because it's too much the heart can bear. It simply hurts. "A man set himself on fire?..Really?" I don't want to hear, see, or even know that it has come to that. My heart can't take it. So, to get through everyday many of us, me included, step far away from it by not watching the news, by not reading the newspaper, by not speaking of it.... waiting for it to work itself out.
ReplyDeleteI think shutting yourself off is the worst you can do. Its like someone is getting raped outside your house, yelling for help, so you raise the volume of American Idol or Chris Brown to drown out the disturbance.
ReplyDeleteIf the world is calling for help, we should try to answer that call, not just hope that it will be alright in the morning or that someone else took care of it.
Cristina, I am in total agreement with you except for your comparison. The difference being someone being raped outside your home is something that you should not ignore because you have the power to get involve. You're right there. However, when it comes to other issues, more global or even national, that are so out of reach it's easier to turn away with thoughts of, "How sad...how terrible" and the mindset of "this doesn't involve me." And most people turn away more so, not because they don't care or are "desensitized", but more because of the mindset of "What really can I do?" or "Will the very little that I can do make a difference?" So I throw this question out there, "What can a college student do to stand against the inequality in Egypt? In Libya? In the US? I ask this question not to say a difference or change can't be made. I ask this question to generate solutions or answers.
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